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She did later agree to become a witness against Mr Dale, who was charged with the killings in 2009.

She told handlers it would play deeply on her conscience if she "says nothing and as a result a guilty man walks free".

Mr Dale was never prosecuted and the murder charges were dropped in 2010.

Ms Gobbo's barrister Peter Collinson QC also suggested at the inquiry into police use of informers that ex-Victorian Police boss Simon Overland "didn't care" about her health when he pushed her to become a witness and risk exposure as an informer.

A senior handler known by the pseudonym "Sandy White" rejected the idea the force had taken advantage of Ms Gobbo's vulnerability, but said he couldn't speak on Mr Overland's behalf.

"All I can simply say to you is we raised our concerns and his response was 'corruption trumps everything'," Mr White said.

Ms Gobbo's mental heath has been a focus of her involvement with police.

Mr Collinson questioned whether handlers considered she might have been "unhinged" when in 2007 she suggested she could travel overseas to help track down her client Tony Mokbel.

Mokbel had fled days before the end of a drug trafficking trial the year before.

Ms Gobbo offered to pay for her own travel to Cyprus and believed if she asked the right people that Mokbel would contact her.

But Mr White he thought she had no more chance of finding Mokbel than any police officer who wanted to go overseas looking.